Official Baldur's Gate Portrait Packs available for Fantasy Grounds

[ddavison]

Do you wish that you could recapture the experience you had playing Baldur's Gate, but using Fantasy Grounds and your own campaign? Take a look at the new Baldur's Gate portrait packs available in the store and on Steam. Now you too can recreate your favorite characters.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?pub=35

or on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/425020
https://store.steampowered.com/app/425030
https://store.steampowered.com/app/425060
https://store.steampowered.com/app/425090

We have small packs for Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate Enhanced, Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale. Thanks to Beamdog for letting us license these bad boys and girls.

Stay tuned for more cross-over items, such as item lore packs.

Read more: https://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...#ixzz3u2OLQwxx

[Mellock]

Haha, oh dear. The nostalgia value for these is great. I think I'll be using these from now on

[Mellock]

Got all 4 packs. After updating, I only have a BaldursGateII and an IcewindDale bag in my portraits window though. No BaldursGate or BaldursGateEnhanced. Did I miss anything?

[ddavison]

So while I have your attention... I wanted to run some idea by everyone on the item packs.

I'm not sure if I'm the only person who noticed this when they played, but the world inside the games was littered with items which all had excellent backstories or lore associated with it and often times had great names as well. In addition to that, they also had books with complete or partial stories entered. All said, there are several thousand items spread across the different games. Books are straight forward and I can bring those across to D&D fifth edition with ease. The items come across with various forms of success. We can correctly identify and recreate several of them within 5E using the new base item + magic item template technique we used for the DMG, but others may not come across as cleanly. An item might have a description of the lore for the item and then include the STATISTICS from the actual Baldur's Gate games. We could either throw this away and leave the name and whatever item it generates or we could include the original stats description so that you can use this further modify the item within your 5E ruleset. I'm leaning towards included the full descriptions and just letting people ignore what they don't want to use.

Thoughts?

Here is an example of a weapon:

Rancor +1
Dorn's sword: Rancor
This ebony two-handed sword is covered with inscriptions that you cannot decipher. It hums softly in the presence of Dorn Il-Khan. Individuals who are good of heart are overcome with feelings of guilt and anxiety when they hold this blade.

STATISTICS:

Combat Abilities:
- When Dorn holds this blade, any death that it causes has a chance to grant Dorn an increase of +1 to his to-hit rolls for 24 hours

THAC0: +1, +2 if it has slain someone within the past 24 hours
Damage: 1d10+1 (slashing)
Speed Factor: 9
Proficiency Type: Two-handed Sword
Type: Two-handed
Requires:
14 Strength

Weight: 12

Inside FG, it would assign it the new Greatsword stats and call it the Rancor +1. The damage would be changed to 2d6+1 for a greatsword and the magic bonus would be set to +1. The description would still be listed the same as the quote above. The cost and the rarity are also undetermined or may be off.

Here is a book that you might find in the game:

History of Durpar and Var the Golden:
Durpar and Var the Golden share a common history. Over three thousand years ago, these countries were both subject to the great kingdom of Raurin. When Raurin fell in -2488 DR, the countries of Durpar and Var barely survived the destruction.
Rioting, mass destruction, and hatred of nobility were rampant, and the two countries descended into barbarism for over two millennia. Finally, after most of the barbarian tribes were wiped out by the great empire of Mulhorand, a leader emerged. Satama, a mere trader, experienced a divine revelation and formulated a new philosophy All things in the world were connected, were part of a single creation spirit, and all of the gods of the Realms were merely parts of the same entity. Soon all the Shining Lands embraced the teachings of Satama, and the seeds of civilization were laid in what came to be known as the Lands of the One.
Since the Lands of the One had many natural resources, trade with Mulhorand and Luiren became a way of life. Merchants were honored above all. In time, the Maharajah of Durpar and the Rajah of Var were replaced with a Council of Merchants. During this time the land suffered occasional raiding attacks from the horsewomen of Dambrath, and had many skirmishes with the neighboring countries of Estagund and Ulgarth.
In 1023 DR, after an armed peace had been worked out with Ulgarth, the council of merchants decided that something needed to done about the raiders from Estagund who were hurting trade with other countries. War was an inconvenience, but interrupting trade was life-threatening.
Jeradeem, the richest merchant in the lands, was given power to negotiate a settlement. During these negotiations he proved, at least in the eyes of the Durparians, that he was indeed the master trader he seemed. Estagund had just tried a foolish invasion of Dambrath. The vengeful female leaders of that land wiped out nearly every able-bodied fighting man they sent. The monsters of Veldorn were causing problems, and Estagund was going through a famine.
It was here that Jeradeem showed his fine merchant's instincts. He could not pass up such an advantage, and began bargaining the most outrageous trade of all time. He met with the leaders of Estagund, a fearful king and his nobles, and explained the advantages of Durparian life and the philosophy of the Adama, the oneness of all things. He bargained for days until finally the king made the trade. He purchased the whole of Estagund for the countries of Durpar and Var at the price of twenty four gems. He also promised protection, and help for their integration into the Durparian way of life. Thus were formed the Shining Lands.
Within a hundred years, the three countries shared a common way of life, and with the added strength and resources of Estagund, Durparian merchants increased their trading range. They roamed as far east as Kara-Tur, as far north as the Sea of Fallen Stars, and west to Dambrath and Halruaa. At the present time, with the newly discovered lands of Maztica and Zakhara beckoning, the future looks bright.
Book Notes
A book might contain poetry, historical accounts, information pertaining to a particular field of lore, diagrams and notes on gnomish contraptions, or just about anything else that can be represented using text or pictures. A book of spells is a spellbook (described later in this section).

[ddavison]

Got all 4 packs. After updating, I only have a BaldursGateII and an IcewindDale bag in my portraits window though. No BaldursGate or BaldursGateEnhanced. Did I miss anything?

Sorry, my fault. It should be fixed now.

[Mellock]

When I played the Baldur's Gate games, I used to spend hours reading those books you could find, and special weapons' descriptions. I thought they were amazing. I'd probably get it for FG. Although you can't just pause FG as a player for 10 minutes while you drift off into a mental fantasyland reading that stuff.

[Zacchaeus]

I agree, there's some great lore in the BG game items and they'd be a worthy addition to FG. I also agree to include all of the descriptive stuff and just let DMs edit out what they don't need or want.

[Griogre]

I would also suggest you keep the original descriptions but make sure you put some text above it that says something similar to: "This information is the original item stat in Balder's Gate. We've modified the item to be balanced in 5E." I'd do this so DM's and players who aren't that familiar with the game would know of the changes and the port.

Edit: Hit return too soon. This seems a great way to show off your Item Forge capacity.

[LordEntrails]

Awesome I agree with Griogre, include the full text including the BG stat, but only use the 5E stats.

FYI, the link to Beamdog's page from the BG II portrait pack is 404. Did not check the others, but suggest they get checked as well.

[Gwaihir Scout]

Pretty cool.

Plus, now when people search for Baldur's Gate in the Steam store, they'll see Fantasy Grounds pop up too.